Zhaoyang Village
Alice was finally glad to be rid of the uprising terror that seemed to sweep in from all corners towards her. At last, they'd found a nice place to rest. It wasn't a very large village, nor was it very scenic. It was a primitive village in the middle of the plains. Small market shops and huts made from raw materials gathered from the forest lined the sides. There was a soft dirt road that snaked its way around the small village. The village was Zhaoyang, an old village of which, very little was known. The villagers, lost in their on joyful isolation, lived quiet lives within the walls and fences around the perimeter. Alice was actually quite surprised to find many villagers out and about at this hour of night. It was as if it were daytime. People were walking about, conversing with each other, selling things at the market, and going on with their business quiet actively. The whole place was alive with activity.
Alice snuck an inconspicuous stretch and a tiny sigh, as she gathered the warmth of life that they'd been deprived of until now. It was truly a relief, she thought. She turned to Yuri. "Hm… it's great to finally be around people who don't wanna kill us…" he said, folding his hands back behind his head with a smile.
"Yeah…" Alice replied, reflecting it back in his face. The place looked very hospitable, despite being in the middle of nowhere.
"Hello there!" a came a voice quite suddenly. It was a man, who had come up to them to their right side on a bicycle. The man was a little older than both, but had a very young looking face. He carried a large bag on his back, made of the skins of some animal, perhaps cowhides.
"Greetings!" Alice replied cheerfully, bowing, as was the polite Asian custom.
"'Sup." Yuri said, rather unenthusiastically. He didn't really talk to strangers. It wasn't that he was "afraid" of strangers, like young kids were taught to fear, he just didn't care as much. People like this guy were more of a nuisance to Yuri than anything.
"I'm a peddler," he said. "And I have a pretty good selection, would you like to take a look?"
"Well, honestly, I don't really think we're in need of that many supplies," Alice said, politely. "We've been on a long journey, and we're just searching for a place to rest for tonight. I'll thank you kindly if you let us on our way."
"Are you sure?" he said. "You never know what things you might need. Your journey sounds like a long and perilous one. And…"
"Look, the lady said no, ya stubborn bastard!" Yuri shot at him, agitated. He grabbed Alice and pulled her along.
"Wait!" he said, grabbing onto Yuri's sleeve.
"Get the hell off me!" he said.
"Please!" the man pleaded, with a sorrowful countenance. Alice immediately felt sorry for him. "I'm really broke. I don't have enough to pay for food. Please, buy something!" he said.
Yuri turned around, and approached the poor man with a glare. He grabbed the peddler by the collar, and lifted him slightly. He yelped slightly, until it was choked off.
Shocked, Alice quickly came up and put her hand on his shoulder. "Yuri, stop!"
Yuri jerked his shoulder away violently. "Do you fucking understand what I said?"
The man winced
"Do you understand me!!?" he said, louder, shaking him around painfully.
"…Yes…" he said.
"Good. Now stop bothering us, or I'll kick your ass. Got it?"
End of discussion.
"Good," Yuri replied with a sarcastic smile, and threw him onto the ground. Struggling to get to his feet, the peddler held onto his stretched out collar, with his head down.
Cough… cough…ugh.
There was a silence, as Yuri stood above the poor man, with Alice close behind. The peddler panted, with his head low to the ground, when suddenly something fell at Yuri's feet.
The man turned his head to see that they were coins. And quite a number of them, too. Grasping his neck, the man glanced up at Yuri.
"There. Take it, okay?" Yuri said with a stone cold face. There was a silence. A smile appeared on the man's face, and he grabbed the coins with a new vigor that suddenly arose in him.
"Now piss off." Yuri said, turning around and walking away.
Getting to his feet, the man with his renewed energy, smiled, with a look of pure admiration. "Thank you kind sir!" the peddler called after him, bowing, as Yuri walked away. His appreciation was never returned. Alice followed, and smiled, as she looked at him. She knew he had a heart. He just had a different way of showing it. Perhaps she could eventually pry her way into the big heart inside him, and change him into a great person someday.
"That was very kind of you, you know," Alice said, after a quiet moment.
"Oh shut up," Yuri said. "He was annoying me. I had to get him off our backs somehow."
Alice giggled.
Both in the strange pair of travelers were quite famished at this moment. They didn't eat the giant spiders out on the plains because they were highly poisonous. If eaten, the unfortunate victim would fall prey to fits of vomiting blood, until eventually they keeled over. In this way, one dead spider fed a whole bunch more.
And speaking of wild animals that wandered the dark plains at night, no one knew what kind of diseases the mad wolves and bats out there had. At least half were bound to have rabies. Many disappearances here had been attributed to the attacks of rabid animals wandering like drunken zombies into campsites, with their wide eyes running, and mouth covered with a thick blanket of white foam, before devouring any person they could find.
Yuri's stomach growled like a lion. And he was surprised when Alice's growled even louder, which provided a small amount of comic relief for them for a while. Eventually, they sat down at a small restaurant. It wasn't very big, it was just a few seats behind a bar table, with one elderly man cooking up some food, which was almost exclusively meat. But he didn't have many customers, especially in the middle of the night, so he was sitting in the back room, away from the counter.
Yuri rang the bell on the counter to summon him. "Finally good to get some real food in our stomachs, eh?" he said, smiling to Alice. She nodded compassionately. Her smile seemed to brighten the day now that Yuri had pried it out.
They waited for a few seconds. Nothing happened. "Ding! Ding!" went the bell once again. They waited for a few more seconds. Still, no one arrived. "Oh come on, Goddammit…" Yuri said. "DING! DING! DING! DING!" went the bell as Yuri aggressively hammered it, until he lost his temper, and picked up the bell and began to pound it on the desk. "Come on!!!" he shouted.
An elderly man appeared, from behind a curtain. "What… what the… Hell do you want!??" said the old man, in his old gruff voice.
"What the hell's it look like we want, you mean old bastard, we want some food!" Yuri said, angrily.
"So, what'll it be?" said the man. He was a fat man with grayish brown hair. He kneeled over the counter and looked Yuri in the eye with a stressed out looking face. But once he saw Alice, he just began to stare.
"Whoa… a woman…" he said. He gulped down some saliva. Perhaps it was because of nervousness?
Alice tried her best to avoid the man's eyes. But the man continued to stare. "Ahem…" Alice cleared her throat. The man smiled, and continued his stare. "May I help you?" Alice said, slightly annoyed. I have enough perverts to worry about… she thought to herself, glancing at Yuri, sitting next to her.
"Oh, no, I'll help myself…" he said. "Oh, I mean… uh… here!" he said. He passed a metal bowl with a red meat inside, and a pair of chopsticks. Alice couldn't help but wrinkle her nose as she tasted it, for it tasted terrible. She'd never tasted anything like this type of meat before…
The man continued to stare at Alice, hungrily beholding her beauty. He smiled, and seemed in a daze.
"Yo! A little service!" Yuri said, banging the bell on the desk rudely once again. "Gimme something hard!"
The man flashed him an unpleasant look, and disappeared behind a curtain with another glance at the young, Cherubic maiden beside him.
"…Wow, Alice… you sure are popular here! 3" Yuri said.
Alice bit down onto something hard in the nasty meat, sending a painful wave through her jaw. She pulled a bone out of her mouth. "…They didn't even take the bones out…" Alice said, with a disgusted face. She noticed that there were bones all over inside the meat. "…I'm full," she said, pushing the bowl forward, and wrinkling her nose. "…That's just bloody disgusting," Alice said. She had no intention to create a pun out of that.
The man came back with a cup, and slid it to Yuri. Yuri looked into it. It was a red liquid. "Never saw this kind of beverage…" Yuri said. He took a drink of it, and suddenly found himself spitting it out reflexively. "Hey, what is this shit, man?" Yuri asked. "Tastes like freakin' metal or something!"
"I find it quite tasty…" said the man with an annoyed face, with his hands on his hips.
"I thank you for your service, but we must…" Alice began.
"This place sucks! We're outta here!" Yuri interrupted, throwing the mug down to the ground, and dragging an obsessively apologetic Alice with him.
"Jeez, after a whole night of walking, I'd expect to have some nice liquor. But what do I get? CRAP! That's what!" Yuri complained. "Tasted like freaking blood."
"Well, perhaps we can get a meal at those kids' house…" Alice said, quietly. Yuri spit a wad onto the ground and said nothing more.
The streets were filled with the scent of the metal that Yuri had just tasted, and it brought with it a sense of unease for both of them. Near the edge of the tiny village, a large, old shack sat. It was quite bigger than all the other ones. Standing in the shadows of two gigantic silhouetted conifers, it stood alone, lit by one single candle, hanging on the porch. Alice spotted two figures in the bushes behind the house. Two pairs of eyes, one yellow, one red, peeked up at her. As she stared back with curiosity, the things jumped out of the bush together. They were two black cats, and young ones at that.
Suddenly, everything was gone. All was dark, and dead… Alice could hear a strange voice that came with the wind, calling her name. The feeling… it made her skin crawl… it felt as she was alone, here. The house in front of her had become a mass of moving bones… the windows had been carefully carved out and watched her like dark eye sockets. The wind, cold as ice, blew up against her face, and the trees surrounding her waved in their dark silhouettes, conversing silently with one another…
"Hey, Alice!!!" Yuri shouted. Alice jumped with fright… The village had returned. All that was gone. She looked around at the enigmatically changing scenery, until she became aware it was her own consciousness that had taken shape before her very eyes. "Yo, are you zoning out there, kiddo?" he asked her.
"…I just…" Alice hesitated. "Never mind… let us continue…"
Around the back of the house, a large fence wound around, and behind it was a large, dark, living forest. As the couple walked their way, alone, past the house, they noticed a strange path that ran its way shyly past the cemetery, where cheaply made crosses and dead logs, marked the graves of long deceased villagers. In the far end of the path, there were bare hides hanging from a wooded gate structure. There wasn't a single hair on any of them.
Alice began to sweat uncontrollably, and a look of discomfort came to her face. She began to look around herself as if she expected someone to knife her in the back anytime soon. "Yo, what's up, Alice?" Yuri said, seeing the worried look on her face.
"I feel an evil presence. It's just like I felt before Roger Bacon boarded the train…"
"Whoa, you're a psychic, dude!" Yuri said, with an unusually cheerful expression. Alice's face remained unchanged, however.
"It's evil… and the voice mentioned it, too…" she continued. And with another distrustful look around her, she just began to walk off toward the hairless hides hanging from the gate.
"Huh? Hey! Where the hell are you going? Shouldn't we hole up for the night?" Yuri said, watching her continue off. "Oh, what the hell… damn broad…" he said to himself, before following.
Alice pushed aside the hides, and was greeted with a very unpleasant smell, that filled her nostrils like a thick miasma of dead carrion that made her seem dizzy. It was a cave, of some sort. And the next thing she noticed, were two small lights, most likely candles, by a shrine, some fifteen meters away. As she walked, her foot caught on something, and she landed on the ground, with a painful "crunch!" sound.
Yuri entered, and saw Alice on the ground, painfully holding a bleeding cut. Pitiful whimpering groans came from the wounded Angel. "Alice, you okay?" he said, heading over to help her up. Alice felt around herself in the darkness. The ground was covered with materials of all different shapes. Some were round, but most were thin and cylindrical. They were all hard, and some had holes inside. She picked one up, and held it to her face. In the dim light of the two candles, Alice saw what it was, and suddenly dropped it with a startled yelp.
It was a skull.
"What now?" Yuri said, looking for the thing she dropped. Alice stepped closer to the two dim candles. She discovered that the candles were actually farther away than she had at first perceived. And before them, there was a wall. It was a wall made of bones. Skulls stuck to each other stared at her with their empty sockets, maliciously. It was as if Alice was disturbing them with her presence. Though they did not move, Alice could feel their hate and blood lust.
The smell was now getting overwhelmingly dreadful. Alice covered her nose and stepped backward, into Yuri's arms. "Whoa…" Yuri said with amazement.
"Th-these are all… bones… Human bones!!" she said, stuttering as she spoke as the fear and disgust welled up inside her. The bones of people… killed here!"
"Whoa…" Yuri repeated, seemingly interested. "Awesome…"
As the pair's eyes adjusted to the dim light of the cursed candles, Alice saw that the ground was painted with blood. The soft dirt all around sloped inwards, to a deep depression, where the bodies of various, unclothed humans lay. The eyes laid wide open, and their mouths hung down in a pitiful fashion. Several had holes in their bodies, viciously ripped by the teeth of some rabid beast. The hole they sat in was perhaps fifteen feet in diameter, and maybe ten feet deep.
Alice glanced at the haunting light that shone from the two candles at the back of the cave.
"What's happening in this village…?" Alice said with paranoid eyes.
Yuri stepped over to the pile of bones and inspected it. The skulls were tightly packed together, and wouldn't budge. "Hmm…" Yuri said. "Looks like the voice was right. I think these people're cannibals."
Alice inspected the two candles from behind the wall of skulls. "That shrine there… it's as if it holds all the anger of people that died here." With this, Alice glanced back down to the pile of meat that lay in the depression some 15 feet away.
They were silent for a moment.
"Heh heh heh…" came a voice from behind them quite unexpectedly. They both turned around quickly to see. At first, it seemed as if the person's head was floating in thin air. His body seemed to blend with the darkness of the area so well. He was an old man, with a shrunken face and a smile creepier than Bacon's. He was the boniest man you'd ever seen, and his bald head was covered with a few gray hairs that grew out, and hung down like a dead willow.
"Looking for the Black Tortoise god that was enshrined here, are you? Well, he's been gone for six months!"
"The Black Tortoise God?" Alice asked, backing up near Yuri. She hadn't been searching for a god or anything. She had just sensed an incredible evil here. Something that was taboo in the human world. The two of them had come here only in search of a bed and some food.
"Yes. To pacify the Earth Spirits, humans defied him, and built this shrine. It's all such nonsense! But now, with the troublesome Black Tortoise God gone, we're free to do as we please!" the man's chuckle seemed to echo in the darkness. "We can even take the form of humans. We couldn't ask for more! The only problem is, now we get hungry… it's all thanks to the new Protector of our town, Yamaraja!"
Suddenly, Yuri laughed. "Yamaraja! What kind of a name for a demon is that!?" he turned to the shrine with the two candles. "I suppose I'd find him in that shrine there?" he asked, defiantly.
The smile had disappeared from the grinning old man's face. "How… how insolent!" he said. "But no matter… you won't last long… Tonight there'll be a special feast, for our rare guests. Now, you just run along and say hello to the Granny Mayor, hee hee…" As Yuri turned around, he could've sworn he saw the faint form of a silhouetted beast take off out of the small cave, and into the forest beyond. "Hm… it seems they aren't just cannibals… they're demons, too…" Yuri said.
"Don't tell me we're gonna be eaten…?"
Yuri smiled. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not too fond of the idea!" he said, sarcastically. With this, he smile, and cracked his knuckles.
Alice stamped her foot, crunching into the bones that covered the soft dirt ground below her. "I'm not happy about it either, I can tell you!" she said, all panicky. "What are we gonna do, Yuri? We can't stay here! What if…"
"Oh, lighten up! It's all right, I'll protect you," Yuri said, cheerfully. Alice fell silent for a while, but she felt safe with Yuri by her side.
The two headed over to see if they could get out, but soon the two kids from before came running up to them. "Ooh, it's the girl from before! Thank goodness!" the Red eyed child said, as if he were desperate to see Alice. Her stomach lurched uncomfortably. She imagined inside the house was a bunch of devil worshipping people, each with knives, or axes, to carve up their meat. Bodies of naked humans hung headless from the ceiling, twisting this way and that on the ropes…
"You really came!! We're so glad!! C'mon, c'mon, come inside!" The yellow eyed child begged. Then they both went inside with lots of energy.
"They're cute, but they're probably demons, too, y'know," Yuri whispered to Alice. "I say we kick their asses!"
Alice sighed. Why did Yuri's attitude towards everything always seem to be just brute force? Reluctantly, she followed Yuri inside.
The door creaked open, and the two entered. The two boys stared up at them with innocent eyes as they walked across the floor. There was only one room in the entire house. There were two beds on either side, And in the far end of the room, an old lady sat on her knees by a warm, glowing fire that was blazing in a small pit. A strange looking meat was roasting on top of the fire.
"So, you're the mayor's wife?" Yuri said. "Great! As you can see, I have a lady with me. We sure could use a bed for the night."
The old crone looked up at them with kind eyes. Kind, red eyes." Yes, yes, I heard all about you from the children. You just make yourselves at home. We rarely get visitors here. We don't have much for you, but please rest your weary bones!"
"Hey, thanks, ma'am! Well be outta your way by early morning."
The old woman chuckled in the same strange way that the old man had before. "Now, now, no need to rush. You just stay as long as you need to!"
Alice bowed politely. "Thanks, ma'am. It's kind of you to let us stay, having just shown up in the middle of the night like this."
The lady looked into Alice's eyes, and Alice looked away, her heart pounding. Lifting herself off of the soft cushion she sat upon, the old woman walked over and surveyed Alice's physique.
"What a nice-mannered young lady. But you don't have to worry about manners here," she said. There was a short silence. Her smile got wider. "…For it won't change the taste of their meat."
Alice remained silent. Yuri stepped forth. "Kind woman! You all talk as if you're going to have us for supper!" he said, in a sarcastic voice.
"Hee hee hee… Well at least one of you has brains! Eat you both we will!" the old lady said, chuckling. Alice looked at Yuri with frightened eyes, but Yuri just laughed along with her, and soon the kiddies chimed in, too. Alice felt like the only sane one in the room.
The old lady cleared her throat. "I've got to go tell Yamaraja we have an offering for him. Hmph, let me get through here… okay, okay…" she said, grabbing a cane. She made her way out of the house. Yuri and Alice peeked out the window, and saw her heading off towards the shrine beyond the hides.
"C'mon, you two! Here, take a load off!" said the Yellow eyed child, innocently.
"Don't worry, we'll be right outside, so you can't get away!" the other said, with a childish smile. Yuri stared deeply into the child's eyes, and a hint of fear arose in them. A strange aura hung around Yuri, and all but Alice could feel it. The children nervously exited the house.
Alice and Yuri were now alone in the room. A suspenseful pause followed.
"Oh my God!" Alice said.
"I know!" Yuri said, now cheerfully. "I haven't ever been told I have brains!"
Alice ignored his smart comment. "We're in trouble now. Looks like they've got us trapped," she said, uneasily.
"…It appears so…" Yuri said, casually.
Alice stamped her foot once again. "How can you be so calm at a time like this!?"
"Aw come on!" Yuri said, smiling again. The smile seemed immune to the dreadful situation that surrounded them. "If you get too anxious, It'll just make you hungry. Let's take a rest and see what their next move is." And with that, he headed for the bed in the corner. Alice was quite surprised at his easy going and optimistic attitude. But she went to the other small bed without arguing.
Alice couldn't sleep. She knew that within a few hours, each person in town would reveal their true selves, and barbarously fight over who got the most of her meat. A whole village of Satanic beasts hungry for human flesh waited outside. By the dim flicker of candle light, she held onto her cross, and gently prayed to God. "Lord, please bless us, and aid us within this darkest hour. Amen." She whispered to herself.
About an hour later, Alice was just starting to doze off. She had tried to fight it, for fear that she would never wake up again. She thought about Yuri, who slept quite soundly on the other side of the room, and what his plans were. She was very lost in thought, for most of the night, until her stresses gave way to the gentle lull of sleep.
After a while, the wooden door crept open, and allowed a little light to flood into the candle lit room. She rested her head quickly on the pillow, and did her best to pretend to be asleep.
The two children had entered the room. She could tell by their tiny, light footsteps. The red eyed kid looked to see if the old lady was coming back.
"Hey, let's take a bite!" said yellow eyes.
"Well… she's not anywhere in sight… I guess we could!" the red eyed child said, happily. The red eyed kid stepped on an old floorboard, making a loud, creaking noise.
"Shh!" said yellow eyes.
"They asleep?" asked the other one.
"Looks like it!" he said. They both approached Alice's bed as quietly as they could. Tiny fangs began to poke out of their mouths, as they crept up on their prey. "Hooray! Let's have a little taste!"
"Quietly now, or Granny Mayor will kill us!"
Shadows of tiny boys covered Alice. The yellow eyed boy crept forward, while the red eyed one kept flashing glances back at the door anxiously. The tiny fangs got longer and sharper, and they were just near Alice's neck.
But suddenly, a gloved hand came out of a blanket that was on the side of the bed, and grasped tightly around the little boy's neck. A lump rose from the blanket, and soon, it slid off. It was Yuri. Alice stirred awake.
The little boy choked and whimpered as Yuri held him by the throat.
"They're not asleep!" the red eyed boy said, backing off. "You tricked us!"
Yuri threw the little yellow eyed twerp to the ground fiercely. "Well then, don't sneak up on us! And if you do, at least do a good job!" Yuri said, chuckling. "So… you're ready to show yourselves for who you really are?" Yuri's smile turned into a fierce, intimidating face. "YOU LITTLE GOBLIN BRATS!!"
The yellow eyed child was holding his neck, where Yuri had held a grip tight. "Darn! If we let you get away, everyone'll get mad, and then they'll eat us up! And if we don't let you get away, they'll know we tried to sneak a taste, and they'll eat us anyway!" he cried.
"If we're gonna get eaten no matter what, I at least wanna taste the girl!" the red eyed boy said, fiercely. His eyes were no longer innocent, but full of greed and hunger.
Yuri put on another optimistic smile. "Hah! Tough luck, kids! If anyone's going to eat her, it's me!" he declared.
There was a short silence.
Alice stared at him for a moment, confused. So did the two boys. She knew he was just being sarcastic, as usual. He was a weird one, all right.
"Ooh, you're so bad! We'll kill you!" they said.
Yuri put up his dukes with Alice behind him. Alice watched in horror, as the two cute little boys began to shed their human skin. They tore out of it, as if they were demons waiting to hatch from within a glistening red chrysalis. A long sheet of bloody membrane covered their inner bodies, and then slid off, with an audible stretching sound that made your stomach lurch. A foul stench filled the air. And soon, their human skin was flat on the floor, spread out like a bloody sheet, covered with wiggling maggots. Two cat-like demons stood on their bony, hind legs where the cute little boys had just been, drenched in blood. The demons were utterly skinny; their rib bones stuck out at an uncomfortable rate. Their paws were not paws at all, but twisted bony hands. With fierce growls, the two of them stared at their prey hungrily.
"Hm… I guess I have no choice…" Yuri said, recognizing the strength of these demons. Alice's line of view was suddenly flooded with a bright light. She thought she could hear Yuri screaming, as if in pain, but the screaming faded away.
"Yuri!" Alice shouted in concern.
And when the light vanished, Yuri was no longer there! Instead, a greenish tiger-like creature that stood on its hind legs, its meter-long arms hanging nearly to ground, had appeared. But where had Yuri gone?
Both cat demons launched forward toward the tiger. But in a quick movement, the tiger jumped into the air and dodged both attacks simultaneously. From the corner of the hut, the raging tiger roared loudly. The two demons tried another attack, but the tiger stamped its foot. Alice watched, and could not decide whether to be horrified or baffled. As its foot hit, the wooded floor broke and a flat stone shaped like a shield rose. The two demons were taken by surprise, and ran headfirst into the stone, shedding blood. The tiger used a strange kinetic force to push the shield and the demons away. Then, the shield split in two and the tiger flung them at the hellcats, like shuriken blades. Dazed from the hits, the demon cats were left vulnerable, as the tiger once again used its kinetic manipulation to bring more rocks out of the ground. This time, they were shaped like spears. The tiger put its paw forward, and before the two demon cats were aware, two large shafts of stone had pierced their hearts. With painful screeches the two struggled, before two more stones, roughly the shape of a round ball, flew at several miles per hour, towards their heads, crushing their skulls, and violently splattering brain matter amongst the wooden wall. A dark, spider-like stain now hung behind their heads, and oozed down towards the floor.
By now, both demons had been pinned in a bloody mass against the wall, with their dead eyes staring at everything and seeing nothing. The skin seemed to fall off around the wound, spilling hundreds of white, wormy maggots on the floor.
Alice covered her mouth at the sight of such violence… The monster was left standing there, until quite suddenly, it turned and approached Alice. She flinched, holding her book out in front of her. But the bright light appeared again, she watched as the flesh of the tiger demon shifted into that of Yuri, stumbling out in front of her, landing on his knees, and breathing hard. His eyes were bloodshot, and his veins popped out in an unhealthy way.
"Yuri?" Alice said, looking around for the tiger. "Are you okay?"
Once Yuri regained his breath, he stood up. "Hah! You'd just get the runs if you ate us anyway! Got it, fools?"
He stretched out his arms and turned to Alice, who had a look of pure horror and amazement covering her face. "What's the matter, Alice?" he said.
"A-a green tiger demon just appeared out of nowhere! I thought it had swallowed you up, but I'm glad to see that you're safe!"
Yuri chuckled slightly. "I… I originally had no intention… to show you that…" Yuri said, panting between breaths.
Alice was confused for a minute, until she realized. "W-was that… you!?" she said.
"Yeah, it was."
"But… how… how did…" Alice's eyes were of pure shock. She backed away a few steps.
"It's my ability, okay? For some strange reason, I was born with the power… to borrow strength from demon souls that are sealed within me…"
"Does that make you a demon?" Alice asked.
"No, I don't think so…" Yuri said. "Look, I'm still the same me, okay?" Alice was silent. "I had no intention to show it to you, but it was an emergency. You know, I did the same thing when I saved you from Roger Bacon."
Alice was still in shock over Yuri's strange power. But the thing that took her mind off of this was a sudden rotten smell. It was the smell of carrion, and it had come without warning, unseen, a deadly miasma streaming into her nostrils. She felt like she was drowning in evil and death. And a strange sound accompanied it. It was a sound of slipping. As if slimy pieces of meat were moving up and down the street.
"Yuri, it sounds like something's happening outside!" she said, cupping her hands near her face. It was a habit she did when she was frightened. It came from praying to the Lord in times of crisis.
But as usual, Yuri just laughed. "So, the whole town's decided to show their true selves, have they?" Yuri said. This statement contributed to a rise of fearful emotions within Alice.
The two exited the small hut, and found themselves in the same village. However, there was one large thing that had changed. The ground was covered with a red, sticky substance. Piles of naked human corpses lay here and there. Piles to be eaten…Alice thought to herself. A look of uncontrollable horror was written on each of the anguished faces, as if trying to tell them how they had been slaughtered and harvested for their meat. Most were female, and they came in all shapes and sizes. One even had a swelled up, but empty uterus. She was obviously pregnant, but they'd cut out and eaten the fetus before birth.
Scraps of bone and flesh littered the red ground until you could hardly see the dirt road beneath. A large reddish fog had suddenly blown in, and evil seemed to swirl above them, as if to keep them there until they rotted along with the rest. Alice couldn't help but picture herself, stuck on top of one of the naked heaps, her head completely shaven, and her face, having the same horrified expression of a helpless and trapped animal, prey to these evil demons and their malicious bloodlust.
It seemed like a horrible nightmare to Alice. It suddenly felt like all of the past six months had been a nightmare. Her father dying, the train incident, and this cannibalistic horror were all nightmares that she could never awake from. She felt her soul, in the dark void, futilely crying for help. The cries echoed through the darkness and her heart gave in. But suddenly, she snapped out of it, and became aware of the reality of this nightmare.
"…It's like a sea of blood!" Alice said, her heart thumping furiously inside her chest. "This must be what the village really looks like…"
She expected sarcasm from Yuri, who seemed to stand up to all types of fear as if they were jokes. However, she was surprised, and quite alarmed to find that he had a very serious and concerned expression. "This is what was left after the demons devoured the humans. Be careful. I think they mean business this time," he said. There wasn't a single ounce of rebellious energy left in his voice, and the ghastly aura that seemed to come from him on the train returned. It wasn't evil, but a feeling of protection from the darkness.
He turned to the bare skin hides (Alice now knew for sure that it was human skin) and peered behind them. "Why don't we see what's happening back there?" Yuri asked. Alice didn't really want to, but she had no choice but to follow. Together, they squished their way through the bloody masses below their feet, and into the small shrine ahead.
The Mayor Lady, still in her human form, was sitting by the two dimly lit candles. Alice took a glimpse of an object she held in her hand. She held the head of a young Chinese girl, perhaps 20 years old, by the hair. As Alice watched, a disturbing event unfolded. The old lady proceeded to strip the head of its skin using several peeling tools. She… tore it off of the skull, like skin on a fruit… it was awful. Twisting a winding metal needle into the eyeball, she jerked fiercely on it, making a crunching sound from the snapping nerves that detached.
Alice shook her head and cried silently for her to stop, when she took the same winding needle, and twisted it into the cerebrum, and pulled it out of the nose hole of the skull. Now rid of all the skin, muscle, cartilage, and fat, she polished the skull with a soft cloth, and placed it up onto the alter.
The candles seemed to glow brighter and redder in the darkness, now that the village had turned into a crimson sea. They were like two eyes that stared at the two intruders as they approached. The demon… Yamaraja, was watching.
The old lady suddenly turned around reflexively. She had heard their quiet footsteps, almost as if she had the hearing ability of a cat. Indeed, her face sort of resembled one in the dim light of the two candles. "Eh? How did you get here?!" she said, with annoyance. "The children were supposed to have been guarding the entrance. What have you done to them?"
With this, Yuri's cocky sarcasm returned quite as suddenly as it had vanished. He laughed. "Hey, lady. I put the kiddies to sleep. Permanently." He stepped daringly forward, cracking his knuckles. "Why don't you show us your true form, too? We're tired of this endless cannibalistic bullshit. We figured that if we came here, and took care of you… Well, you know how it always works!" With the final sentence, he shrugged and a grin had appeared across his face.
The old lady walked forward, towards them. "Ha! Fools!" she said, cackling like a witch. "Even if I die, the monsters will remain, and you'll still be imprisoned in this town. Because all of this is the will of the great Protector, Yamaraja!"
Yuri couldn't suppress his laugh. Alice didn't know why Yuri found it strangely funny that the name of some demon god of Purgatory was called Yamaraja. The name just reeked evil. "Yamaraja? C'mon, I could take care of him just by destroying the shrine back there!"
"Take a good look!" the old lady said, with a wicked grin. "These are the bones of all those I've sacrificed to Him! I used the townspeople's malice to create this fence to keep one and all away from Him. As long as I'm alive, this fence will protect Yamaraja. Because without killing me, you can't get near the shrine!"
"So… I was right after all! You are the one to get!" Yuri said.
The old lady cackled once again. "First you'll have to catch me! Poof and I'm gone!" she said. There was a bright flash of light, and her body faded away from sight. Both were dumbfounded.
"Dammit!" Yuri cursed. "Where'd the demon-cat go?"
And suddenly, the two of them heard an echoing voice coming seemingly along with the red fog that blanketed the village. Only the voice was not the voice of a timid old lady anymore, but a deep, demonic voice that came from all sides. It was as if it was the voice of the entire village. The voice of hell… But it was just the old lady's new voice, coming back to them.
"Hyah hyah hyah! You're going to wander aimlessly through this village forever! Wither and die in this village, where morning never comes!" with this, a strange howling sound came in from all sides, and a high screech entered their ears, along with the crone's wretched, echoing laughter.
Alice was intimidated by how her voice had changed. But Yuri just showed anger. "Damn it!! Show yourself, bitch! Come on, come out and fight! I'll kill you, you motherfucker!" Yuri said, fiercely, looking around.
"Where did she run away to?" Alice asked. "…I have a feeling that she can't escape this place any more than we can."
"Yeah. She must be somewhere in the village. Let's find her. Then we can get the hell outta here," Yuri said. Alice felt uncomfortable, rushing so quickly into the fight, but she followed him. The two crunched their way through the tiny cave, and back down the path past the human skins.
As they continued down the bloody street, they passed the small restaurant that they'd eaten at before. As they strode down through the village, Yuri had a suspicious look in his eyes. He sensed something… Suddenly, he paused, and put his arm out in front of Alice. She stopped before she could bump into him, and looked around. "…Yuri, what is…"
"Shh!" he said. A silence followed. "Get back!" he shouted.
Alice felt herself being shoved down into the putrid, slimy ground. And then she saw an amazing sight. Cannibalistic animal demons had suddenly emerged from the houses, like zombies. They were going for an ambush, but Yuri had sensed it beforehand. All of the townsfolk had appeared, showing their true faces, all twisted pointed noses, sharp claws, long fangs, and severely disfigured faces. Demonic laughter filled the area surrounding them.
The old man they'd seen before stepped forth, with a wicked grin on his face. "Heh heh heh… tear them apart!!!." He yelled, his face changing shape, and discarding his human visage. As if to obey the man's command, the entire village, now freshly shed of their disguised skin, began to close in, hungrily on the pair.
"Aww, shit!" Yuri exclaimed. With lightning reflexes, Yuri dodged two attacks from both sides at once. With a sweeping kick, he brought one demon down to the ground while he whacked the head off of another with his foot. He picked up the one he'd swept, and threw him with great strength to a group that was approaching him from the front, and then quickly plunged his fist through another like a wooden board. He pulled his fist back, and pushed the demon down with his foot.
Yuri now jumped backwards and put up his dukes. A group of about ten more demons lay ahead of him. Yuri tightened his fists, and suddenly, to Alice's surprise, three long blades jutted out of his white leather gloves, with an audible "shing!"
And Yuri suddenly went into a fighting frenzy, taking down multiple targets all the time with superhuman speed. It was actually tough for Alice to see him at some moments.
But what was known was that several began to fall at a time, until all of the demons that had emerged were shoved down to the ground to join the human corpses.
The steel blades retracted very quickly, back into his white leather gloves, and Yuri looked up to the sky with wide eyes, holding up his hands. "Raaaaaaahr! I AM YURI! DESTROYER OF EVIL!!!" he shouted. Alice didn't know what to say. But it was actually kind of humorous to her, the way he exaggerated like that.
It was then, that they both noticed that the old lady was standing among the fallen corpses of demons, with a wicked smile. "Wow, you're a tough cookie!" the old lady said. "It's a wonder you didn't get eaten by my underlings yet! Poof!" and before Yuri could throw a punch, she had disappeared once again, in another flash of light.
"Argh! She's gone again," Yuri said, with frustration. Alice was silent.
The two continued their walk, investigating random places without the slightest hint of where the cat lady would be. But the next time they found her, it was quite sudden, and both were startled.
"Don't you think it'd be easier to just give up and let us eat you?" came the deep, demonic voice. It was to their right, in a nearby shop. The old lady stood there, grinning, with crimson red eyes, behind the counter. But the tinge of red that reflected in her eyes wasn't like Yuri's reddish eyes. It was more like they were soulless glass eyes and had been painted red by all the bloodshed that they'd witnessed within this village.
"Dammit! I'll get you this time!" Yuri said, grabbing a nearby butcher knife. "I WILL CUT YOU!"
"Poof!" the demonic voice said simply, and the old lady faded just quick enough for the butcher knife to hit nothing but air, until it dug its way into the wooden wall in the back of the building, and vibrated back and forth.
"…God, motherfuckin' dammit!" Yuri shouted, kicking the stand, and causing a bunch of human chunks to fall out of several baskets, as well as a pain in his foot. "Ow…" he took a breath, and turned to Alice. "Well babe, it looks like it'll be the same thing over and over at this rate. We're not getting anywhere."
Alice cupped her hands near her face once again, as she imagined never emerging from his horrible place. The place had gotten quiet suddenly, since Yuri had taken care of all the villagers. They were in this for good. That was for sure. Alice only wished she knew what to do. Pretty soon, many more demons would come crawling out of the old forest, the swampy marshlands, and that cemetery near the animal hides, to feed on the prey the disguised villagers had brought in for them. It was only a matter of time. This was the calm before the storm. Alice suddenly felt quite alone, with only Yuri by her side.
"Come on…" Yuri said, urging Alice to follow him again. "We'll find something out!" he said, with a smile. In the remarkable task it was to inspire faith and hope in Alice at a time like this, it seemed that Yuri was one in a million, who could triumph. Alice looked into his eyes and caught the smile like a disease.
"There's the gate," Yuri assured her. "Perhaps we can find something there."